Don't know if anyone has seen this yet. I didn't know gMail was "open" to the public? Well, it is if you look hard enough:
gMail Sign-up

Just need your EDU email address... but it's more open than "invitation only".

~Brett

    But it's not like it's hard to get an invite.

    Just ask a friend or two.

      The problem is that they're only offering it to US University students. I wouldn't consider that open to the public yet. It's still in beta. But I also guess that it's a step in the direction of making it open to the public.

        Yeah.... didn't know it was only open to US students...

        Anyway... if you need an invite... I've got like 500.... ( no kidding... 100 per account..)

        ~Brett

          It's open to anyone who wants to - it's been out of "invite-only" beta for a few months now. Just go to the homepage and click "sign up" - you need to type in a cell phone number to verify you're a human, and then you're in!

            It's still not as easy to sign up for as something like Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail. I'd say it's still not officially "public", but I must admit that it is much more accessible than it has ever been.

              How much better is gmail than say... hotmail? I have some friends who use it and are quite happy with it - just wondering if it's worth switching over.

              I use hotmail but I am quite happy with it mainly because of how it is built in to the MSN browser - makes it easy for me to access my mail. What do you all think?

                Haven't used Hotmail in a few years, but Gmail is one of the slickest, fastest, and easiest to use interfaces on the web. It's as close to a desktop email app as I've used on the web.

                  gMail beats Hotmail or mail.com or Yahoo! Mail hands down. Why?

                  Because it's a cleaner interface (no ads blocking valuable screen-space).

                  It's faster.

                  The SPAM features are awesome.

                  The space they give you (2.5 GB as of today) is way more than you'll ever find for free anywhere.

                  There are no "folders" but rather "Labels" so all your mail is in your "All Mail" folder with labels. Sorting through emails is so much easier without looking in folders, you just look in "All Mail", and if you need a specific topic: select the label.

                  You can search inside your emails easier.
                  It's tied directly into Google so you get your own personalized homepage too.
                  GoogleTalk is tied into gMail and I'm sure there are extensions/plug-ins for gMail for MSN, Yahoo!, AIM, Trillian, gAIM, Miranda or whatever chat program you use.

                  So, gMail is better. I've used all the email services you can probably think of. I'm truly enthused with gMail and love it. Never hurts to try, you can always delete your account later (yes, you can delete your email account).

                  Consider your invite in the mail....

                    /me echoes BPat and Sxooter. After reading that Jeremy Zawodny was using it to manage all his emails, I thought hey, if it's good enough for him then it's good enough for me.

                    Takes a bit getting used to- the search rather than sort thing. But it manages all my emails and I love it. Quick, clean, customizable, plenty of space. I know some are worried about privacy, but I figure I don't have anything juicy in there anyway 🙂

                      Still Beta? Google is nothing but Beta. Everything Google has but their main web search is labeled "beta" (well not everything, but pretty much everything).

                      I'm starting to think that Google runs a 5 year Beta cycle. Froogle, for example, is still "beta" and has been so for at least 3 years.

                      For some reason they are quick to jump into things, but not quick to remove their "beta" labels.

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